[9.0] "Josh Alexander is such a good wrestler. He is freaking great at what he does and even knowing that he is not fully at his prime currently when that post is being done, we can't deny this talent, mostly here. That was the match who made him be hired for AEW without a single doubt, Tony Khan surely saw that and got excited by his talent. He just had a pure World Title vibes match with Konosuke Takeshita for 25 minutes, that was exactly what he expect from his world champions and most important, he was a incredible babyface. However, I feel that this match overall had the mistake exactly right there, at the logical behind the booking. Why a match for a midcard belt got so important? Worse, a match that everyone knew the result. Josh Alexander was still under TNA contract when that happenned, obviously he wasn't getting the belt here. Anyway, beast performance by Josh and mostly by Takeshita, back to back doing two insane crazy matches."
[8.0] "Takeshita did it again in back to back nights. He is the Man, Josh Alexander is also amazing. This was a fun hard hitting match, between two amazing wrestlers. (4.00*)"
[9.0] "What a main event. The pace was pretty slow at first, with Alexander having to work as an underdog as Takeshita punished and wore him down. That wasn't my favourite, but the rest of the match was very 50/50 - and fantastic. At one point, Alexander hits the C4 Spike but Takeshita gets his foot on the rope. I thought that was a nice way to avoid the kickout and keep the match going. The crowd got quite loud near the end. I liked the finish too, they avoided going too long/doing finisher spam. I think the Bailey match on night 1 had a faster pace, but this one had better psychology."
[6.0] "Served as a great palate cleanser to whatever that awful Takeshita performance was last week. These two had the time, so they built towards the big sequences and moves, yet like many modern 'epics', they go through motions of way too many OMG GIF-worthy moments and lose me when they all turn out to be inconsequential. Trim this to 20 minutes, and you've got a great match between two hard hitters."
[10.0] "Konosuke Takeshita rules. Coming off one of the best matches of the year against Mike Bailey, he absolutely tore the house down once again against Josh Alexander. While this wasn't as good as the previous night's main event, it's still among one of my favorite matches of the year. An absolute hard-hitting, technical banger. ****3/4."
[8.0] "A very good match with a slightly hectic pace at times, but I think the final moments redeemed this match quite well. The crowd was still in full swing, just like for Takeshita's match the day before. (4*1/2)"
[5.0] "This match was pretty, I didn't expect much from this cause I wasn't sure if this was gonna be good, but this turned out to be good. I feel like this did go for way too long. I feel like this should've went for 20 minutes and not 29 minutes. It was also slow at times"
[9.0] "great match. Takeashits brings the hard hitting striking and Alexander brings the grasp. Dont perfectly complement eachother but they are both elite performers. ****3/4"
[9.0] "This was an awesome match. Scott D'Amore's Maple Leaf Pro Wrestling shows proved how big of a mistake it was for Anthem to fire him from TNA. Each night was topped off with main events featuring Konosuke Takeshita, a rising star in AEW and one of the best Japanese prospects in an American promotion. On this night, he defended the AEW International Championship against former TNA Champion Josh Alexander, who is no stranger to Takeshita as they have wrestled before. This was a fun match up, with Alexander playing the babyface against the heel champion. I loved the finish, more than anything because Konosuke won the match clean. Post match had Ricochet come out to save Alexander from a beatdown from Konosuke and his manager Don Callis. So most likely, we're going to get Konosuke Takeshita vs Ricochet at the next MLP show. ****3/4"
[7.0] "I'm a big fan of both of these wrestlers, Alexander is a great technical wrestler and Takeshita is arguably my favorite wrestler in the game right now. But for some reason this match didn't connect with me on the same level it did with others; it's quite good, but compared to the bombastic, explosive bout Take had with Speedball the night before I feel this is much weaker. The big spots, such as Josh's German suplexes into the buckle & on the apron as well as Takeshita's brainbuster on the ramp, looked awesome and gruesome but the connective tissue of the match felt flimsy to me. I'm a proponent of the kickout at 1 spot *when it's effective*, which is just a matter of foresight, and here it didn't really move me much but also didn't take me out of the match entirely. This was a match that I found to be very good but not quite reaching great status, so the Cagematch 9.04/Dave 4.75 sorta set my expectations a bit too high and I find myself slightly disappointed."
[10.0] "This was incredible. I think I prefer this match than the one of the night before (Takeshita vs Bailey) because of the intensity and the sense of struggle in the fight between two equal wrestlers. The encounter might have started slow, but it was building to an incredible second half full of great spots and big moves. Before I start talking about the match, I want to give a shoutout to Josh Alexander's pink and black attire in honor of Bret Hart, it was a great touch. The match starts really slow with five minutes of back and forth mat wrestling with some shoulder blocks and strong chops to add fuel to the match. That sequence that ends with Josh Alexander locking on an anklelock into a Sharpshooter, which Takeshita breaks reaching the ropes. Then Takeshita hits one of his lariots and then a DDT on the ring apron. After some heel tactics and sending him against the guardrail and the ring stairs, Takeshita returns to the ring and hits a cool senton bomb and a brainbuster for two nearfalls. Then Alexander regains control with a back body drop and another Ankle Lock, Takeshita reaches the ropes again, so Alexander decides to flip him upwards to send him to the floor. Then hits a cool crossbody block while Takeshita is sit on the apron. And then a Finlay Roll into a diving knee drop into the back of the head for a nearfall. Takeshita regains momentum and hits a dive, where it seems he has hurt his leg more in the landing. Big boot in the corner into a superplex for a two count. Then goes for a frog splash, but Josh Alexander is able to put his knees up to counter it. Midmatch, both men are exhausted and on the floor for a 10 count, as the two titans are equally powerful and have to bring the big moves if they want to give the match. So the pace gets faster, the strikes mre powerful and stiff. Alexander is able to lock the anklelock again, but Takeshita counters it with a stiff lariot. Then Alexander hits an amazing powerbomb backbreaker on his knee and goes back for the anklelock again. Takeshita is able to scape this time after managing to do a roll and send Alexander against the turnbuckle and then hit a Poison Rana. At that moment, Alexander has a second wind, straps his singlet and hits two consecutive german suplex, but Takeshita is able to reverse it again and hit two of his own. So they continue struggling, until they got to the apron and Alexander hits a german suplex on the apron. Then continued in that position, until Takeshita is somehow able to hit a brainbuster on the ramp. Both men are down and almost are counted out. That was one of the biggest sequences of the match. Both wrestlers are exhausted, but keep wrestling. Takeshita goes for his knee strike, but Josh grabs it and tries to hit a discus lariat, countered into a Blue Thunder Bomb for a nearfall. After that Josh Alexander tries to hit the C4, but Takeshita scapes and hits a stiff forearm, which got Alexander dizzy, his selling here is amazing. But he is able to recover and use Takeshita cockyness to grab his leg and lock on another anklelock in the middle of the ring. Takeshita manages to counter it into a german suplex. Goes for a lariat, but Josh blocks it. He goes for the C4 Spike Piledriver, but Takeshita counter it and hits one of his own for a one count. Alexander kicked out of it screaming "No" and really angry as if he had done it out of frustation. They do a sequence of reversing tombstones and Josh Alenxander finally hits the C4 for a great nearfall where Takeshita can't kick out, but is abel to put the foot on the ropes. Alexander tries again the anklelock and even stomps the leg to hurt it more. Takeshita bites his own hand to not tap. Tries a roll again, but is not able. After scaping after turning upsidedown, Alexander hits a german suplex into the turnbuckles and begins to puch the mat being angry for not putting away his opponent. They go to the top rope where Takeshita hits a lariat, into the power drive knee for a final nearfall. Takeshita goes for the Raging Fire, but Alexander scapes. Takeshita hits a stiff forearm that makes Josh Alexander take off his head protection and tossing it into Takesita. Another forearm, into the power drive knee into the Raging Fire finally put away Josh Alexander on a fantastic match. As I've said earlier, the sense of struggle between this two titans colliding was amazing. Alexander's selling of his frustation and his constant work and counters made Takeshita look even better. Maybe I'd have liked a bit more selling, but I was really happy with the outcome of this great main event. Hopefully we'll see more of Josh Alexander in MLP, cause he is trully great."
[9.0] "Leave it to Josh Alexander to elevate what would've been an indie bomb-trading match into a legitimate title main event. I don't want to take away from how good Takeshita's offense always looks, but his forte isn't in a 30-minute main event style (at least based on his DDT work), but he showed some excellent chemistry as he followed Josh's match pacing to a T even if his leg selling wasn't great. The sequences from the midpoint through the ending were all super memorable and fun, from the Germans from the ring out onto the floor leading to the brainbuster on the ramp and the double count-out tease to Josh kicking out the stolen C4 Spike at 1 (defiant 1-counts after finish steals are the BEST) to the straps coming down behind Takeshita's back to the German into the buckles to the headgear throw. This was just Alexander working at his best in those last 10-15 minutes. Granted the first half I thought was just alright; not exactly too long but pretty standard fare. A really great match worth a watch, but not the best Alexander title main event you'll see. ****1/4+"
[9.0] "This was a masterpiece of a match. The story telling of Josh fighting resiliently until he couldn't anymore, Takeshita being the big boss and the bumps, holy hell those bumps were insane. Takeshita taking a german on the apron and into the buckles, the brainbuster on the ramp and everything else was amazing. The final stretch was great and very thrilling and I loved this match. I'm also very impressed with Takeshita for having two amazing MOTY contenders in the span of 24 hour."
[7.0] "Every since this years G1 Climax Konosuke Takeshita's matches are mostly boring to me. Mostly very predictable and about 20-30% longer than they need to be. This match was a bit better than that but still went a couple of minutes to long and the "Takeshitaisms" were cut down a bit. You can also almost always count on Josh Alexander to put on one of the best performances on any show, that helped a lot here."
[9.0] "Another amazing match from Takeshita on night two of MLP, this time with the fantastic Josh Alexander. Overall, I preferred this to Takeshita's match with Bailey as it felt like both men were better equipped to work a big match like this."
[9.0] "Back-to-back show stealing performances for Konosuke Takeshita, this time against Josh Alexander for Takeshitas AEW International Title in his first defense. Josh Alexander proved once again how he should be considered one of the best wrestlers in the world, and as soon as I saw this matched announced for this show specifically, I knew we would be in for something special. Takeshita and Alexander complimented one another styles well, trading mat based offense before getting into the physicality, each displaying their strength to the other. As soon as Josh snatched Takeshitas ankle, the champ took a breather to recalibrate and after that moment, these two never looked back. A hurricanrana and senton over the top displayed Takeshitas freak athleticism, but Alexander muscled up the Alpha with a nasty looking powerbomb backbreaker, with Takeshita then immediately countering that with a goddamn poison rana. They trade German Suplexes of all things on the apron, before Takeshita hits Alexander with a brain buster on the ramp, and when they get back in the ring Takeshita hits Josh with a brutal forearm that I thought legit knocked Josh loopy, but Alexander locked in the ankle lock while both were down. They trade finishers, with both men kicking out and one, before Takeshita hit Raging Fire for the win. The only complaint I have was the kicking out at one for each others finishers, but what a contest these two delivered that lived up to not only the previous nights main event, but an excellent addition to both guys catalogues. (****1/2)"
[10.0] "Awesome match from Josh Alexander and Konosuke Takeshita who just had a fantastic match the night before with Mike Bailey. It was technical and hard hitting. Both guys got some good punches on each other. There was some good suplexes from both guys. This match went back and forth. Very good performances from both guys."
[9.0] "Great match, both guys definitely went all out and showed off tremendous ability. My small critiques were the length, a bit of overuse of big bomb/kickout, and the fact that Don Callis is so damn irritating on commentary. But yeah, seriously great match."
[9.0] "Konosuke Takeshita vs Josh Alexander was an excellent main event that was hard hitting and high octane throughout. Takeshita is one of the best wrestlers in the world who brings absolutely everything to the table you could want out of an in-ring performer. His arsenal is superb in every way and meshed well with the technical wrestling ability from Josh Alexander. This was tremendous (****1/2)"
[8.0] "****3/4 a very great match, among the best of the year, very even with the match against Bailey, very great sequences, great chemistry, great hard hitting, very good technique, very great kick-outs, and a very great finale with that lariat sequence from the third rope then the running knee strike, kick-out, intense exchange of blows and ends with the brutal spinning falcon arrow"
[8.0] "This was great even with it's big shoes to fill given Konosuke Takeshita's match from the night before. Last time I saw Josh Alexander was his ironman match with Nic Nemeth which left a lot to be desired but the ending of the match had me believing a more condensed Alexander match could be great. Does also help that Alexander was in the ring with one of the best young talents today. I still think Alexander is a bit slow on launch, he doesn't get super interesting to me until the fatigue sets in cause the third act of this match really elevates it and brings out the best of the two. Loving the booking of Takeshita on this show, both matches show to be a cocky heel but doesn't give him a reason not to be because the guy just outclasses everyone he's in the ring with. The indyrific kickouts are also working for me as they're really getting over Takeshita's Raging Fire cause just as what feels like should be the big spot to end it, you get a 2.9 count and then Takeshita pulls out the nail in the coffin, spinning falcon arrow and it's over. I'm so gassed up for this title run"
[10.0] "Takeshita's body needs to be studied, he just wrestled a 25 minutes modern wrestling masterpiece the day prior and then he wrestled a 30 minutes battle with Josh Alexander. The best thing of this match was that every single move was actually as impactful as it could have ever gotten, even a simple move delivered what seemed to be and enormous damage (in kayfabe ofc) and throughout it felt like two titans were fighting instead of two men which was I feeling I never got this year. Of course, also the counters were great and the stolen finishers and kick-outs at 1 just added more layers. Absolutely fantastic dream match. *****"
[7.0] "After the previous night's overcooked main, it was refreshing to witness a bout built upon shoulder blocks, body slams & back drops, and the first half of this was really very good. But bloody hell did they go way past the point of bringing the match home. I did appreciate the slower pacing at the back end as both men sold exhaustion between the high impact blows, but it all got a bit silly and the crowd kept going quiet waiting for some kind of clue that a crescendo was coming ***1/2"
[9.0] "[4.25*] I just love watching Josh Alexander wrestle. He is one of my favorite in-ring performers to watch in 2024. He is very technical but without relying 100% on submissions, which actually makes his matches more enjoyable and easy-watchable in comparison with technical submission wrestlers that are not phenomenal like Bryan or Zack. I just found this match delicious to watch, it had 30 minutes and never dragged, never felt boring. They wrestled a pretty smart-match with some great touches like the German Suplex on the Apron by Josh followed by the Brainbuster on the ramp by Take. The most impressive thing for me is that Take had just wrestled a 25-min match the night before, this dude is a fucking machine, man. The ending stretch had a lot of nearfalls, with Takeshita stealing the Walking Weapon, which led to Josh kicking out at 1! This was not a perfectly executed kickout at 1 spot but did not bother me either. Josh did some limb-work on Takes knee in order for him to apply the Ankle Lock, it was not the best sell-job ever but I do not think it was a major focus of the match either, they were more focused in being smooth, cool and entertaining, which they 100% were. To be honest, I never called this match brutal because it had actually a bizarre amount of thigh slaps, specially on the elbow strikes. You could see that it just was not a Puroresu stiff-fest because they were not even connecting, but the match was so fun and I had such a great time watching it, I will not punish the average rating for that. Well, it worked with the crowd, so. I popped a lot for the This Is Wrestling and Fight Forever chants. Ricochet appeared after the match to save Josh and I honestly popped for it too lol."
[9.0] "MLP and Takeshita delivering bangers in back to back, another incredible match and definitely putting MLP in the spotlight, very good dynamics of the match, but the structure was very similar to the main event from the previous night, I didn't think it was necessary to kickout one in two shows in a row and in matches with the same structure, no matter how much the styles change, I prefer the match from the previous night (because I watched it first perhaps), but anyway, I'm looking forward to more from the new company and Takeshita delivers another banger, no matter how obvious it is. were the defense (****3/4)"
[8.0] "The technique of Josh Alexander vs the power of Konosuke Takeshita. The wrinkle being that Alexander is pretty powerful and Takeshita has pretty good technique. I wouldn't tank this as highly as the main event with Speedball on night 1, but this was a damn good main event. Highlight at the end was Alexander hitting Takeshita with his head gear."
[9.0] "Match started a bit slow but then got COOKING and stayed fire until the end. This was a great defense for Takeshita and Alexander showed once again that he's one of the best wrestlers in any promotion. Fantastic main event to finish off a great show."
[8.0] "Match was very slow to start and the crowd was incredibly dead throughout but once it got going...wow. What a match. Still not amongst Takeshita's best matches of the year but that speaks more about how good Takeshita has been this year if anything. Josh Alexander is also incredible"
[10.0] "This is what I need, inject me with this match again and again. This man Takeshita casually putting on 2 MOTY contenders in 2 days is wild and somehow not even a surprise. The running knees is just chef's kiss"
[10.0] "Back to back amazing matches from Takeshita here. There was some really great spots in this match especially all the German suplex spots. The ending sequence was amazing and executed really well, the running knees from Takeshita came out of no where with great timing."
[10.0] "Just like the Takeshita Vs Bailey match the night before this match, this is a complete masterclass from two of the best in modern professional wrestling with absolutely phenomenal and hard hitting action and chemistry. Massive props to Takeshita for making back to back BMOTYCs in this two night show and Ricochets appearance was great as well, building up to a future match between them for the title."
[10.0] "That was awesome! an epic main event thats surely in my MOTY contenders! Both are on another level right now, speacilly Takeshita, u can go wrong with him! If Big Take is on the ring is already a must watch. Also after Ricochet apperance i hope we get that singles match at Full Gear!"
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